the charisma of thoughts..

"Home is a place you grow up wanting to leave, and grow old wanting to get back to. ~John Ed Pearce

I had returned to my college with exams on my mind and family at my heart. When you go away from your family for the first time in your life, you know that you are leaving everything behind- everything that made up your world until then. But you do not realize what it means. You realize it when you come home for the first time after college and then leave.

I had been home for my mid semester break around Dushehra for about 12 days, and those days were some of the most beautiful I had had in a while. It was because I knew what those days were worth. And so, when I went back to my college, I was in tatters and the immediate exams didn't help. Those days had had such an impact on me that they pretty much changed my strategy going in that semester. Uptil then, I had taken up that book-worm sort of role, attending all classes and bunking none at all. I had even attended two lectures where I was the only person present. But now, things were about to change.

Soon as the exams were over, I asked my parents to get me home for Diwali. Uptil then, I hadn't gotten any reservations or preparations made for being home in the festival because I was uncertain about the holidays I would be getting. But I no longer cared about that. I asked my father to look for reservations around the said dates and that I had to come home no matter what.

But there weren't any seats available and the waiting lists were so long I never stood a chance. We thought of Tatkal but that couldn't be trusted with something as serious as Diwali. Navigation to my way home posed a big question.

One day, I was in the college workshop when my phone vibrated. I sneaked a view at it and it was my father's call. I couldn't pick up then and so I avoided. He called again and I thought it must be something important. So I asked the teacher-in-charge's permission to go out and take a call, telling him it was my father and that it could be important. He allowed and I went out to take the call. My father told me about a single solitary bus seat still available but it was much before the date I had told him. I said it was Okay and I could manage. Then I asked what it cost and he asked me not to worry. I asked him to tell me anyway and he did. I asked him not to book it and that I would just catch a normal bus home when it comes down to it. But he knew better and told me he was gonna book it. "Besides", he said, "you have never seen normal buses in festivals". 

I was finally going coming home.